Dish Network announces Sling TV at CES 2015

Dish Network announced a new “sort of al a carte” internet TV service at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2015 this week, following a new partnership with Netflix to bring the service to Dish satellite TV owners.

The new internet TV service is named Sling TV, and is available for $20 per month. Dish has added some big name channels onto the service, including ABC Family, Adult Swim, CNN, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network, HGTV, TBS, TNT, Travel Channel.

ESPN is the biggest announcement for Sling TV and may be the first signs of a few cable cutters. Having both main sports channels on Sling TV, especially for football fans, may be enough, especially at a much cheaper rate than regular TV.

There is still lots of big channels like AMC, HBO, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox missing from the lineup, channels capable of shifting customers away from cable. However, Dish is committed to adding more in due time, especially if the service becomes popular.

Dish will also offer two genre packages at $5 each, named Kids and News. It has not been confirmed which channels will be available in the package, but it is clear Dish is exploring an a la carte system for offering smaller packages, rather than the full deal or nothing.

The announcement comes after both CBS and HBO announced their own TV services would be coming to the internet. More TV programmers are looking to the internet as a way to make increased revenue, after the massive success of Netflix.

It is still a wait and see for many U.S. cable and satellite owners, but if Sling TV can keep on adding channels, there might be no need for the expensive cable box in a few years time.